Wow! Another day and another case of abuse on the records. Yes, this time it is done by a 40 year old woman in Missouri by the name of Elizabeth A. Thrasher. I guess the acts of Lori Drew were not enough to either wake people up to these things or completely put a stop to them. This is the first case under the new Megan Meier Law in Missouri to be charged with felony harassment.
Mrs. Thrasher was having a feud with the girlfriend of her ex-husband. The 17 year old daughter of the girlfriend went over to MySpace and sent Mrs. Thrasher a note telling her to grow up. Well, Mrs. Thrasher decided to head over to Craig’s List and posted a picture, email address and cell phone number of the 17 year old girl under the Casual Encounters section of the site. The content was suggesting that the girl was looking for contact of a sexual nature.
I do not even know where to begin with this one. I have seen the comments posted in this resource and people are saying “why don’t they grow up?†and things like that. All I know is that if we cannot behave as adults ourselves and handle our problems with one another as adults, how can we expect children to behave and be respectful to others? Folks, I grew up in the same generation as Mrs. Thrasher and I can tell you that this problem with peer abuse and bullying was as alive then as it is now. I can remember many who did not behave with consideration or respect and have probably not outgrown it but taking it to the workplace where we are now talking about these problems at work. Folks, if you get anything from this blog, I hope it is the fact that bullies do not grow up but grow worse. I hear so many say that people outgrow this behavior but can assure you that for the most part, they don’t. They just get more manipulative, charming and subtle in how they abuse their peers. I cannot say whether Mrs. Thrasher is an adult bully considering the fact that I do not know this lady. However, her actions in this situation indicate an adult bully. This is the kind of stuff adult bullies do. No regard for anyone else, especially a child.
I would hope after the Lori Drew case that people would wake up to this problem and not enable it. So far, it does not seem to be the case.
7 users commented in " I Guess we did not Learn after Lori Drew "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackIt would be interesting to know if the charges were brought because the victim is a juvenile?
Would these charges have been brought if Mrs. Thrasher had posted a photo and the same personal information (phone number and email address) of an adult on Craigslist? (I hope so considering that our “privacy” these days is dwindling to just about none.)
You make a good point about our privacy, it is about nil to none out there.
If she had done this to a peer, chances are it would be case of cyberbullying, however, it would not be as big of a deal as it is with her doing this to a minor. I consider this also child abuse as she is exploiting this child by posting these things. Really, it is more child abuse IMO but the fact that it occured online made it a cyberbullying case.
Websites like Craigs List keep a record of visitors on their site by logging IP addresses. I know in the past they have pulled these types of posts and traced them back to personal computers and locations. So, if someone is callous enough to do something such as this, they will be traced on there. I am guessing this particular incident happened a while back and after a couple of months of Craigslist tracing this, they looged Mrs. Thrashers IP address and caught her. A very dumb move on her part….
I find it interesting in the above blog entry the phrase “This is the first case under the new Megan Meier Law in Missouri to be charged with felony harassment.” The above law is Missouri’s Senate Bill 818 which provides prosecutors a means to prosecute persons 21 years and older when they “knowingly communicate with another person who is, or who
purports to be, seventeen years of age or younger and in so doing and without good cause recklessly frightens, intimidates, or causes
emotional distress to such other person .”
Not to be confused with California’s Megan’s Law provides the public with certain information on the whereabouts of sex offenders so that members of our local communities may protect themselves and their children. Just wanted to make that clear.
Thank you very much, Denise. You answered my question too.
Thanks Denise for clearing that up. Have a good evening…..
I decided to turn the glass over so to speak and look at this situation as “half full.” Even though Lori Drew’s despicable behavior did not teach the likes of stupid, mean, vindictive Thrasher not to do what she did, at least now the awareness of law enforcement and the justice system has been raised and there are specific laws against it – on which Thrasher will be tried!
The next test though is will she be convicted and will the punishment be enough to discourage others from doing this? If the law has no “teeth” there isn’t much use in having the law. So I’ll be interested to see how this turns out.
Lori Drew was acquitted. That means she was not guilty of anything.
Neither you or anyone has the right to charge her of anything. The law has spoken and she did nothing wrong.
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